As can be appreciated, a patient suffers severe physiological and psychological trauma following surgery for removal of a breast. During the recovery period, patients complain of a feeling of physical imbalance. Such feelings of imbalance can be so severe that the patient is unable to walk without falling. At the very least, patients tend to hunch their shoulders towards the site of the surgery. These feelings of imbalance persist even after the patient has fully recovered from the surgery. The psychological trauma experienced after such surgery always remains with such patients. This trauma is reinforced on a daily basis when the patient dresses and views the site of the missing breast and the unattractive scar that can result from such surgery.
In order to alleviate the post-operative trauma that results from the removal of a breast, the prior art has provided breast forms that fit within a sewn pocket that is formed within the cup of a brassiere. Some breast forms of the prior art are fabricated from a silicone gel that is encapsulated in a polyethlene coating that is adhered to the gel. In order to alleviate the patient's sensation of imbalance, such breast forms are sized with a uniformly distributed weight to approximately simulate the weight of the missing breast. In this regard, for a given cup size of a brassiere, the breast form weighs slightly less than an average breast because the breast in a brassiere cup is partially supported by the chest of a patient. Even so, such breast forms can weigh 14 ounces. Thus, when the patient dresses in the morning and inserts a breast form into a pocket of a brassiere, the psychological trauma due to such surgery is reinforced because the wearer is confronted with the thought of her missing breast when handling the weighted breast form.
The present invention provides a breast form that acts to restore a wearer's sense of balance after breast surgery while having a lighter weight than breast forms of the prior art. Moreover, the pocket containing the breast form of the present invention is preferably sewn so that the breast form is permanently attached to the brassiere and the breast form is never handled by the wearer. The lighter weight of the breast form of the present invention alleviates the traumatic, reinforcing act of a wearer sensing the weight of the breast form. This is accomplished in the present invention by providing a breast form that has a concentrated weight instead of the uniformly distributed weight of the breast forms of the prior art. The concentrated weight, as viewed when the breast form is located within the brassiere cup, is located so as to be spaced from the chest wall. The weight being spaced from the chest wall is thereby leveraged to induce a moment which is resolved as a tensile force in the brassiere strap. The importance of this is that the wearer senses the weight of any breast form by the loading on the brassiere strap. The leveraging of the weight in the breast form of the present invention results in a tensile force that is equivalent to a tensile force produced by a prior art breast form of heavier weight. Although one would expect a heavier breast form of the prior art to produce a greater loading in the brassiere strap, the concentrated weight in the breast form of the present invention and the spacing thereof from the wearer's chest is selected to be approximately equal to the tensile forces produced in the brassiere strap by a prior art breast form. The reason for this relates to the fact that all breast forms, as viewed when the breast form is located within the brassiere cup, rapidly narrow from the chest wall to the end of the brassiere cup. As such, since the weight of a prior art breast form is uniformly distributed throughout, the center of gravity of a prior art breast form is located towards the chest wall and hence, is relatively unleveraged. Thus, the weight is supported by the panels of the brassiere that support the cup, rather than by the brassiere strap. The wearer does not sense the weight of the breast form by the loading on the panels, but, as stated previously, by the tension and loading on the brassiere strap.